Search Exotic Incidents Database

While being moved from Roark’s Reptile Safari (non-AZA) to spend the rest of year at the South Carolina Aquarium (AZA), a 22-foot-long, 250-pound female reticulated python broke free of her container and slithered into a transport van’s undercarriage, then made a break for a sewer grate. The python was recaptured by the aquarium curator and four fellow staffers.

A stray wallaby was recaptured and returned to his possessor after roaming a neighborhood.

A sea lion escaped from his enclosure at Sea World in Mission Beach by climbing over a wall. He shimmied up several flights of stairs, crossed a boardwalk, and ended up on the front doorstep of an apartment complex. Residents called Sea World and handlers captured the sea lion with a net.

A truck carrying three elephants got into an accident and went into a ditch. The elephants were unloaded and let wander around the side of the highway until police and a tow truck arrived to pull out the elephants’ truck. The elephants were reloaded and continued on their way to Florida.

A woman was bitten on her thumb by her boyfriend’s venomous snake and rushed to the hospital. The boyfriend was charged with reckless endangerment and importing a venomous snake into the state.

A 10-ft-long Burmese python was missing after she was let out of her cage by her possessor to sun herself.

A 7-ft-tall black bear escaped from his “owner” while being walked. The bear reappeared at his home one week later.

Two servals were found roaming a Seattle neighborhood.

A 7-ft-tall, 500-lb black bear was on the loose. The bear voluntarily returned to his pen 15 days later.

Chad, a 450-pound Bengal tiger with the UniverSoul Circus, squeezed through an opening between his cage and a holding cage and escaped. Climbing over a car and over a fence, Chad startled a police officer and a drive-in worker at a nearby Wendy’s before circus workers were able to coax him back inside his cage. Hundreds of people witnessed Chad’s escape.